Issue 636

Festival Insider - Gavin Webster

13 Aug 2009

Here we are from the Toon to Auld Reekie, 100 miles up the ‘road’ (I use the term road loosely, it being almost farm track between the Geordie metropolis and the Scottish capital, yet Portsmouth and Southampton have a three-lane motorway separating…

Susan Calman: The Last Woman on Earth

A warm show from a friendly talent

13 Aug 2009

Susan Calman was once heckled by a guy who said he wouldn’t shag her if she was the last woman on earth. Taking his abuse as a launchpad, the premise of the pocket-sized Weegie’s show is that we’re all stuck in a bunker after a nuclear attack, and she…

Xiaolu Guo

Creating political parables out of flying saucers

12 Aug 2009

After her reading at the Book Festival last year, Chinese author Xiaolu Guo spent a lot of her Q&A session chatting about the literary headaches, not to mention boredom, created by translating from her first language, Chinese, into English. She had gone…

The State We’re In

The power of protest

12 Aug 2009

A fictionalised account of Brian Haw’s camp in London’s Parliament Square to protest the war in Iraq, foreign policy and threats to our civil liberties. Michael Byrne is compellingly impassioned as a man who has taken on the burden of protesting for the…

Opening Night of the Living Dead

Zombies - not huge fans of amateur dramatics

12 Aug 2009

Shakespeare and Romero form an unholy alliance in this horror/comedy that depicts a zombie attack on an am-dram production of Romeo and Juliet . Fun, but ultimately predictable, with often repetitive chase sequences, this piece goes for giggles instead…

Chika Unigwe

Learning how much shame there is in luxury

12 Aug 2009

The depiction of prostitutes in fiction can be a one-dimensional affair, but not in Chika Unigwe’s poignant and moving novel On Black Sisters’ Street. Unigwe was raised in Nigeria, but has spent the last decade in Belgium, and it was a culture shock…

James Kelman

Striking deep into the Scottish soul

12 Aug 2009

There can be few Scottish writers as lauded as James Kelman, and rightly so. The Glasgow-born author has spent a career carving out a place as the authentic voice of his generation, his use of stream-of-consciousness prose and vernacular Scots…

Suhayl Saadi

Spanning the Scottish Highlands and the wilds of Pakistan, his new novel is a weighty affair

12 Aug 2009

‘Epic’ and ‘ambitious’ are adjectives often bandied about in the description of novels that in fact display very little of either. That’s not an accusation you could level at Joseph’s Box, the sprawling, expansive, strange and moving new novel by…

Birthing the Crone: The Crone Chronicles

One-woman show proclaiming the menopause as more than the beginning of old age

12 Aug 2009

Lisa Wilson’s battle with the menopause and a number of unforeseen obstacles come together in this one-woman show that takes a refreshing look at ‘the change’. Intelligently written, and performed with honesty and humility, Wilson takes you on a highly…

Sylvia Plath - Three Women, The First Revival

Rare production of the poet’s play, with fine performances

12 Aug 2009

There’s more than a touch of the poet and playwright herself in each of the three titular characters in Robert Shaw’s production of what was originally a radio play from 1962. The triumvirate of voices are those of a wife (Louisa Clein), a secretary…

Theatre Hitlist

As the EIF joins the Fringe, we choose our pick of Festival theatre.

12 Aug 2009

Diaspora, Sea Wall, The Tartuffe, Trilogy, The Hotel, Party, White Tea, Optimism, Faust

The Yellow Wallpaper

A Goth story that lacks in menace

12 Aug 2009

Enthusiastic production of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s early feminist Gothic story that never quite coheres. A brilliant, sensual central performance by Helen Foster as the creative woman trapped by Victorian gender mores is not enough to paper over…

The Stronger

Two women in one

12 Aug 2009

From time to time the American accent goes awol, and sometimes this monologue feels a little too LAMDA to really grip the audience, but overall Laura Pradelska carries off her one-woman version of Strindberg’s two-woman play convincingly. Sustained by a…

Snatch Paradise

Satire on plastic surgery proves skin deep

12 Aug 2009

This deliberately obnoxious satire on surgically-enhanced sleb culture, in which vacuous magazine-fodder pop tarts are manoeuvred to serve the depravity of a pantomime Svengali manager, contains the odd well-aimed joke. Overall, though, the targets are…

Ophelia (Drowning)

Sorrow in a swimming pool

12 Aug 2009

A heavy exploration of the many forms of Shakespeare’s tragic character, Ophelia (Drowning) gains much from its setting in a swimming pool. It’s an engaging experiment but perhaps a little too immersive, and the sorrow-stricken experience may leave you…

The Montana Ranch

Conscience infected con-men lack real hustle

12 Aug 2009

A pair of con-men take advantage of President Obama’s green initiative to relieve the environmentally concerned public of a cool $2 million, but come unstuck when one of them gets a conscience after spending a month up a tree with a sexy activist. It’s…

Manband – They’re Not A Boyband

Dad dance routines galore

12 Aug 2009

Like Flashdance set in a supermarket, with flashbacks to The Full Monty , Stuart Price’s play follows ex-boyband member Christian (Chris Grahamson), resurrecting the act to impress his daughter. Teasing with the promise of song and dance numbers, then…

Anil Desai

Comedy impressions with improvised sketches

12 Aug 2009

Comedy actor and impressionist Desai hits the Edinburgh circuit with a one-man mission: 52 cards and 52 famous faces in 52 minutes. Desai combines impressions with an improvised sketch show in a fast-paced and unpredictable affair where anything could…

David Longley

Rants and political polemic from the intellectual comedian

12 Aug 2009

Acid-tongued and sharp as a barrelful of tacks, Englishman Longley is a comedian with an axe to grind. His rants on everything from politics to pregnancy don’t always hit the bullseye, but his witty one-liners keep the laughs ticking over. The Stand…

Long Tooth

Comedy that proves both outrageous and dark

12 Aug 2009

One of the true oddball sketch affairs on the Fringe this year comes from Viv Gibbs and Trudi Jackson as they re-enact bits and bobs of ancient history, conduct a book programme with serial killers and jump in the laps of male folks in the crowd. An…

Maggie Service

12 Aug 2009

Service’s background as a trained actor gives her valuable comic versatility in this one-woman sketch show. But while her characters – ranging from an overly-chatty 24-hour medical emergency helpline assistant to an Australian drama teacher whose mantra…

Matt Harvey

Love poems for household objects, and other unusual ideas

12 Aug 2009

Like the subject of one of his poems, Harvey’s show is low key. There’s a quirky charm in love poems to homely subjects such as Ibuprofen, tea bags and the potato while the Radio 4 contributor’s proposals for a harmonious society include ‘uncertainty…

Mick Ferry: Comedy Final

Split personalities telling the same jokes

12 Aug 2009

There are five Mick Ferrys competing against each other in his Comedy Final. While the crowd happily indulge him in this venture, there is very little to choose between any of them, all coming across with a Peter Kay-esque bonhomie and matey banter.

Neil Delamere

Hilarious on and off his script

12 Aug 2009

Breathless Irish comedian Delamere flits about the stage like a genial dervish, his quick-fire delivery and razor-sharp mind taking no prisoners. Quickly building a supreme rapport with his audience, his masterful control allows him to stray a little…

Paddy Lennox

Tackling this family tree isn't as interesting as Who Do You Think You Are?

12 Aug 2009

Lennox is tackling his ancestry, using it as a springboard for a gentle hour musing his genetic make-up. Poignancy points are awarded for the worthy message and sweet home movies, but the fuzzy warmth far outweighs the laughs. He’s a charming, highly…